Falcon Motorsport’s Harrison Scott has claimed pole position for the first Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain round of 2014. The 2013 Scholarship champion bested JTR Motorsport’s Jayde Kruger in a battle to head the fifteen strong field in a very tight session. Only eight tenths of a second split the top ten cars after twenty minutes of qualifying action.
The eighteen year old snapped up pole for both the first race of the championship this afternoon and the televised race three on Sunday.
As predicted yesterday, Dan Cammish’s qualifying lap record was toppled in the near perfect conditions at Brands Hatch. Scott set a 44.901 to take the top spot in race one, against Cammish’s 45.055 from a year ago. It is equally likely that the race record held by Scott Malvern will fall this afternoon, or during the live race tomorrow.
JTR’s South African star in the making Jayde Kruger gave Scott his biggest challenge. The pair started their rivalry with an amazing practice duel which produced exactly the lap time on Friday. Kruger couldn’t match Scott’s speed in the morning session on Saturday but still lapped within 0.151 of his rival. Jayde will also start second for race three.
Argentine race winner Juan Rosso took third for the first race with a time just two tenths off the pace. Rosso is a strong candidate for race victories after he dominated the competitive action at Brands in the final round of 2013. Max Marshall’s JTR machine will start in third for the Sunday race but only fifth for this afternoon’s first clash after team mate Sam Brabham took fourth place in a mid-session lap which put him 0.228 off Falcon’s man.
As in practice Ricky Collard set the standard for the Scholarship class runners. The lead driver in Falcon’s two car Scholarship effort put both the experienced Jack Barlow and Jamun’s James Abbott between his nearest class rival and himself to start sixth overall in a very competitive field. Ashley Sutton will start in ninth place, second in the Scholarship class ahead of Chris Mealin.
For race three Collard was even more impressive, clocking a time fast enough for fifth. The #11 Mygale-Swindon knocked the more experienced Sam Brabham down to sixth on the grid. Now with three cars between his rear wing and his closest class rival, which is Sutton yet again, the likelihood of a podium visit is almost certain.
The brace of Sinters, both run by SWB Motorsport, struggled to find pace yet again. They will line up 13th and 14th in both races with the Australian Formula Ford champion Greg Holloway ahead of James Webb for both events. Ben Constanduros outpaced Holloway searching for spots in both races. The Richardson Racing driver didn’t test yesterday which explains some of his lack of speed compared to the pole sitter. He can however take heart from the fact he is significantly faster than his only Graduate rival.
Louise Richardson, who nabbed a chance late in the game to driver the family’s Mygale-Scholar and tested for the first time yesterday, was the only driver to produce slower lap times than the Sinter pair. She will start from the back of the grid for both race one and three due to gearbox issues which side-lined her after just three laps.
Provisional qualifying top 10 Brands Hatch 29/03/2014
1 Harrison SCOTT/GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale 44.901s
2 Jayde KRUGER/RSA JTR Mygale 45.052s
3 Juan ROSSO/ARG Radical Mygale 45.102s
4 Sam BRABHAM/GBR (Banbury) JTR Mygale 45.129s
5 Max MARSHALL/GBR (North Kilworth) JTR Mygale 45.157s
6 *Ricky COLLARD/GBR (Eversley) Falcon Mygale 45.209s
7 Jack BARLOW/GBR (Hastings) Jamun Mygale 45.279s
8 James ABBOTT/GBR (Thurlby) Radical Mygale 45.403s
9 *Ashley SUTTON/GBR (Bishops Stortford) Meridian Mygale 45.669s
10 *Chris MEALIN/GBR (Braddan, IOM) Falcon Mygale 45.690s etc
*Scholarship class
Race 3 grid: Scott – Kruger – Marshall – Rosso – Collard – Brabham – Barlow – Abbott – Sutton – Mealin
